After raising our $1.3 million seed round for Yipit, we raised $6 million a year later from Highland Capital, RRE, IA Ventures, DFJ Gotham and others. It turns out that the process of raising a $1.3 MORE

If your startup is looking for an Angel investor, it makes sense to present your plan to flocks of Angels, and assume that at least one will swoop down and scoop you up. Or does it? Actually numbers and locations are just the beginning. MORE

We had a fascinating week trying to get everything figured out on our FG Angels initiative with AngelList. Our syndicate, which we are going to max out at $450,000, is currently right at $300,000 after one week. We are humbled by all the support and interest. MORE

It's Monday, time for another lesson I've learned in the venture capital business. Today I will tell a story that I love telling. It has some of my favorite people in it. Back in 2004, early in my blogging career, I heard about a service that had just launched called Feedburner. It provided a number of useful services for a blog's RSS feed. So I went and signed up and AVC became one of the first users of the service. I immediately liked the service and the idea. MORE

This is a guest post by Nathan Barry, in response to two other posts that previously appeared on this blog. Nathan is the author of Designing Web Applications , The App Design Handbook , and Authority: A Step-By-Step Guide to Self-Publishing. MORE

We all get a lot of email. And we send off scores of them, too. For important emails we hope for replies or action. If you do the math on the number of inbound emails you get multiplied by the time it would take to read them all and respond to those that expect a reply you would be astounded. MORE

Are you a non-technical startup founder who’s about to go have a conversation with a Chief Technical Officer (CTO) or Technical advisory type person? Maybe you are going for a reality check on your current situation - wondering if you have a Weak Development Team or a Startup Founder Developer Gap. MORE

Seems like every third startup nowadays is using the “Freemium” business model: The lowest service tier is free, and the business is designed to get those users hooked and then upgrade to a paid plan. MORE

This post is for everyone who thinks venture capital is an easy business. I'd like to dispel that notion. Here are short term and long term returns for the venture capital business over the past ten years compared to the public equity markets in the US. MORE

Aileen Lee has a really good post up on TechCrunch , in which she analyzes the number of companies that have been started since 2003 that have gone on to be worth $1bn or more. This is a very useful exercise in the VC business since it is these big wins that produce the vast majority of returns in the business. MORE

As 2013 comes to an end, I feel some relief that what has been a difficult and confusing year is almost behind me. I mark the year boundary with my birthday (12/1) so December is an “unwind” month for me. MORE

As a founding partner of Year One Labs (an early stage accelerator), which operated actively in 2010-2011, I participated in 5 very early stage investments. But that wasn’t angel investing (although it had some similarities). Nine months ago I made my first independent angel investment. I’ve made 7 in total. They include: anonymous company (can’t tell you yet), sendwithus , Scalability ( Hockeystick ), Mixgenius , TandemLaunch (a fund / incubator), Breather and Javelin. MORE

Early on, once you’ve identified a problem genuinely worth solving, you need to build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and put it into the hands of early adopters. In Lean Analytics , we call this the Stickiness Stage. I recently wrote that most startups fail at this point –they simply don’t get the traction they need (in terms of regular usage, engagement and retention) to keep going. MORE

Last week, we posted the results of benchmarking several web application development and frameworks. The response was tremendous. We received comments, recommendations, advice, criticism, questions, and most importantly pull requests from dozens of readers and developers. MORE

Robert Jordan image via HowTheyDidIt.com. Entrepreneurs are a notoriously stubborn (some say confident) group of people, so I see many of them making the same mistakes that predecessors have made. MORE

Every startup I see invariably puts up a competitive analysis slide that plots performance on a X/Y graph with their company in the top right. The slide is a holdover from when existing companies launched products into crowded markets. MORE

Image via niaje.com and www.yec.co. There is so much written these days about how to attract investors that most entrepreneurs “assume” they need funding, and don’t even consider a plan for “bootstrapping,” or self-financing their startup. MORE

CEO transparency. It almost sounds uncontroversial. A CEO should tell her staff everything! Right? Right?!? Of course not. It’s a hard topic to write about because it’s almost an accepted norm that total transparency is good. It is not. MORE

Marketo filed for IPO with impressive 80% year-over-year growth in 2012, with almost $60m in revenue. Except, they lost $35m. It’s not impressive when you spend $1.60 for every $1.00 of revenue, force-feeding sales pipelines with an unprofitable product. MORE

Q: When building a financial projection model for a pitch to VC’s, should you include future rounds of funding in the model or simply show what measurable goal you are trying to achieve with the current round you are seeking? A (Brad): It depends on the stage of the company. But first, it’s important to understand how a VC is going to look at your projections in the first place. MORE

The following post is a comprehensive summary of the developer-facing changes coming in Java 8. This next iteration of the JDK is currently scheduled for general availability in September 2013. At the time of this writing, Java 8 development is still very much in progress. Language features and APIs may still change. I'll do my best to keep this document up to date. MORE

I did a presentation this week at Coloft that looked at how Non-Technical Founders can go about getting their MVP built. It had a passionate group of 50 people attending. I promised to do this post as a follow-up to the session to provide additional links and information. MORE

I feel badly for Paul Graham because he's being made out to be something I am sure he is not. But the brouhaha that he unleashed about women founders, women coders, and women hackers is a good thing because we ought to be having a broader conversation about these issues. MORE

It was February 2010. We were noticing that a company named Groupon was taking off and a whole new industry was booming along with it. Our idea for Yipit was simple, aggregate all these daily deals being sold by different companies and put them in one email. MORE

Pivot. We’re all familiar with the word — and many people now roll their eyes when they hear it. The word has been bastardized, overused, and taken out of context. But it doesn’t mean pivots aren’t important. Dont hate the word, hate the people that use it incorrectly and ignore its importance. Pivot. Say it with me. Pivot. Pivot. Pivot. Recently, I did a presentation on pivoting: what it means, why it’s important, and how to do it properly. MORE

About What we do Portfolio People Blog Contact. You are viewing a single entry. Please also check out the most recent entries. March 28, 2013. Framework Benchmarks. How much does your framework choice affect performance? The answer may surprise you. MORE

Asking, “Can I have coffee with you to pick your brain?” is probably the worst possible way to get a meeting with someone with a busy schedule. Here’s a better approach. —— Jason, an entrepreneur I’ve known for over a decade, came out to the ranch today. MORE

It was February 2010. We were noticing that a company named Groupon was taking off and a whole new industry was booming along with it. Our idea for Yipit was simple, aggregate all these daily deals being sold by different companies and put them in one email. MORE

Image via IntellectualVentures.com. If you expect to succeed in the thrill-a-minute, roller coaster ride of a startup, let me assure you it takes more than a good idea, a rich uncle, and luck. In fact, the idea is often the least important part of the equation. MORE

You are viewing the first round of web application framework benchmarks. We have since posted a second round and third round that each include community-contributed updates. Check out the new stand-alone framework benchmarks site if you are interested in the latest and most accurate data. MORE

2013

About What we do Portfolio People Blog Contact. You are viewing a single entry. Please also check out the most recent entries. March 28, 2013. Framework Benchmarks. How much does your framework choice affect performance? The answer may surprise you.

It was February 2010. We were noticing that a company named Groupon was taking off and a whole new industry was booming along with it. Our idea for Yipit was simple, aggregate all these daily deals being sold by different companies and put them in one email.

This post is for everyone who thinks venture capital is an easy business. I'd like to dispel that notion. Here are short term and long term returns for the venture capital business over the past ten years compared to the public equity markets in the US.

Image via niaje.com and www.yec.co. There is so much written these days about how to attract investors that most entrepreneurs “assume” they need funding, and don’t even consider a plan for “bootstrapping,” or self-financing their startup.

Pivot. We’re all familiar with the word — and many people now roll their eyes when they hear it. The word has been bastardized, overused, and taken out of context. But it doesn’t mean pivots aren’t important. Dont hate the word, hate the people that use it incorrectly and ignore its importance. Pivot. Say it with me. Pivot. Pivot. Pivot. Recently, I did a presentation on pivoting: what it means, why it’s important, and how to do it properly.

Every startup I see invariably puts up a competitive analysis slide that plots performance on a X/Y graph with their company in the top right. The slide is a holdover from when existing companies launched products into crowded markets.

Marketo filed for IPO with impressive 80% year-over-year growth in 2012, with almost $60m in revenue. Except, they lost $35m. It’s not impressive when you spend $1.60 for every $1.00 of revenue, force-feeding sales pipelines with an unprofitable product.

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Every startup I see invariably puts up a competitive analysis slide that plots performance on a X/Y graph with their company in the top right. The slide is a holdover from when existing companies launched products into crowded markets.

Marketo filed for IPO with impressive 80% year-over-year growth in 2012, with almost $60m in revenue. Except, they lost $35m. It’s not impressive when you spend $1.60 for every $1.00 of revenue, force-feeding sales pipelines with an unprofitable product.

I did a presentation this week at Coloft that looked at how Non-Technical Founders can go about getting their MVP built. It had a passionate group of 50 people attending. I promised to do this post as a follow-up to the session to provide additional links and information.

As 2013 comes to an end, I feel some relief that what has been a difficult and confusing year is almost behind me. I mark the year boundary with my birthday (12/1) so December is an “unwind” month for me.

You are viewing the first round of web application framework benchmarks. We have since posted a second round and third round that each include community-contributed updates. Check out the new stand-alone framework benchmarks site if you are interested in the latest and most accurate data.

It was February 2010. We were noticing that a company named Groupon was taking off and a whole new industry was booming along with it. Our idea for Yipit was simple, aggregate all these daily deals being sold by different companies and put them in one email.

I feel badly for Paul Graham because he's being made out to be something I am sure he is not. But the brouhaha that he unleashed about women founders, women coders, and women hackers is a good thing because we ought to be having a broader conversation about these issues.

As a founding partner of Year One Labs (an early stage accelerator), which operated actively in 2010-2011, I participated in 5 very early stage investments. But that wasn’t angel investing (although it had some similarities). Nine months ago I made my first independent angel investment. I’ve made 7 in total. They include: anonymous company (can’t tell you yet), sendwithus , Scalability ( Hockeystick ), Mixgenius , TandemLaunch (a fund / incubator), Breather and Javelin.

Asking, “Can I have coffee with you to pick your brain?” is probably the worst possible way to get a meeting with someone with a busy schedule. Here’s a better approach. —— Jason, an entrepreneur I’ve known for over a decade, came out to the ranch today.

We all get a lot of email. And we send off scores of them, too. For important emails we hope for replies or action. If you do the math on the number of inbound emails you get multiplied by the time it would take to read them all and respond to those that expect a reply you would be astounded.

This is a guest post by Nathan Barry, in response to two other posts that previously appeared on this blog. Nathan is the author of Designing Web Applications , The App Design Handbook , and Authority: A Step-By-Step Guide to Self-Publishing.

Are you a non-technical startup founder who’s about to go have a conversation with a Chief Technical Officer (CTO) or Technical advisory type person? Maybe you are going for a reality check on your current situation - wondering if you have a Weak Development Team or a Startup Founder Developer Gap.

Q: When building a financial projection model for a pitch to VC’s, should you include future rounds of funding in the model or simply show what measurable goal you are trying to achieve with the current round you are seeking? A (Brad): It depends on the stage of the company. But first, it’s important to understand how a VC is going to look at your projections in the first place.

Last week, we posted the results of benchmarking several web application development and frameworks. The response was tremendous. We received comments, recommendations, advice, criticism, questions, and most importantly pull requests from dozens of readers and developers.

It's Monday, time for another lesson I've learned in the venture capital business. Today I will tell a story that I love telling. It has some of my favorite people in it. Back in 2004, early in my blogging career, I heard about a service that had just launched called Feedburner. It provided a number of useful services for a blog's RSS feed. So I went and signed up and AVC became one of the first users of the service. I immediately liked the service and the idea.

Image via IntellectualVentures.com. If you expect to succeed in the thrill-a-minute, roller coaster ride of a startup, let me assure you it takes more than a good idea, a rich uncle, and luck. In fact, the idea is often the least important part of the equation.

We had a fascinating week trying to get everything figured out on our FG Angels initiative with AngelList. Our syndicate, which we are going to max out at $450,000, is currently right at $300,000 after one week. We are humbled by all the support and interest.

CEO transparency. It almost sounds uncontroversial. A CEO should tell her staff everything! Right? Right?!? Of course not. It’s a hard topic to write about because it’s almost an accepted norm that total transparency is good. It is not.

Early on, once you’ve identified a problem genuinely worth solving, you need to build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and put it into the hands of early adopters. In Lean Analytics , we call this the Stickiness Stage. I recently wrote that most startups fail at this point –they simply don’t get the traction they need (in terms of regular usage, engagement and retention) to keep going.

If your startup is looking for an Angel investor, it makes sense to present your plan to flocks of Angels, and assume that at least one will swoop down and scoop you up. Or does it? Actually numbers and locations are just the beginning.

The following post is a comprehensive summary of the developer-facing changes coming in Java 8. This next iteration of the JDK is currently scheduled for general availability in September 2013. At the time of this writing, Java 8 development is still very much in progress. Language features and APIs may still change. I'll do my best to keep this document up to date.

Aileen Lee has a really good post up on TechCrunch , in which she analyzes the number of companies that have been started since 2003 that have gone on to be worth $1bn or more. This is a very useful exercise in the VC business since it is these big wins that produce the vast majority of returns in the business.